There’s work to do. health opportunity rights Landmine Survivors Network Created by and for survivors, LSN empowers individuals and communities affected by landmines to recover from trauma, reclaim their lives, and fulfill their rights. Message from Jane Olson ince 1997, LSN has established Peer Support Networks in six mine- Chair, Board of Directors Saffected countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jordan, El Salvador, Dear Friends, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Vietnam. LSN employs more than 40 staff and Last fall, I traveled with LSN Board members and friends to visit the consultants at its Washington, DC, Headquarters, and nearly 100 people Jordan Network and assess both the challenges and achievements of LSN. Jordanian Outreach Workers introduced us to courageous survivors in abroad, most of whom are survivors. their homes, at clinics, jobs and play. We witnessed struggle and pain, but Over the past year, LSN has helped thousands of families affected we also watched the thrill of competition at an amputee swim tournament, and saw pride in the eyes of a survivor who described his new business by landmines, provided more than 15,000 home and hospital visits to launched with LSN support. survivors, and helped launch more than 280 survivor-owned businesses. Our rights-based development initiative gets survivors on their feet and back to their lives. One young amputee described his relationship with LSN But there is still much work to do. as a “contract for hope.” We toured demining projects in the Jordan Valley and met heroic deminers who were injured while removing 100,000 of the nearly 300,000 buried landmines. Military deminers make up 20% of our caseload. The trip was not all work. We visited historic, cultural and natural phenomena. During our climb through Petra, the ancient rose-colored city, I reflected on TABLE OF CONTENTS the resiliency of landmine survivors. LSN frequently invites Board members, donors and friends to visit our Message from Chair, LSN Board of Directors. 1 field programs. I hope you will consider joining us on a future mission, as I Message from Executive Director . 2 know you would be proud to see how your investment is changing so many ® ® Victim Survivor Citizen . 3 lives half a world away. Victim — Losing My Place . 4 I want to thank each of you for your contributions to LSN. It is inspiring Survivor — Finding My Place. 10 to see how much can be done with modest resources, efficiency and relentless Citizen — Claiming My Place . 16 determination to help victims become survivors and reclaim their lives. Raising the Voices. 22 Let’s keep up the good work, Goals for the Future . 24 Working Where We’re Needed Most . 26 Financial Summary . 27 Board, Contributors, Friends, Staff, Consultants and Trainers . 28 Landmine Survivors Network Annual Report 2002 1 health opportunity rights health opportunity rights Message from Jerry White ® ® Co-Founder and Executive Director Victim Survivor Citizen Dear Friends, 2002 marks Landmine Survivors Network’s fifth anniversary. Co-Founder Recovery Evolves Ken Rutherford and I are grateful to dedicated staff, the Board, donors, e’ve learned from survivors that recovery is an evolving process. And while each individual’s path to families and friends. With your help, LSN has offered concrete support to recovery is unique, survivors around the world follow a similar process, with three distinct phases: improve the health and livelihood of thousands of landmine survivors since 1997. W Victim, Survivor, and Citizen. Each phase has different needs. From the beginning, it was clear that we were not just creating victim services for unfortunate landmine victims; we were offering trauma survivors • In the Victim phase, survivors feel disconnected and disempowered, even lost. Their needs are mostly a chance to reclaim their lives. related to emergency healthcare and emotional support. Many survivors describe that post accident it feels like you have lost your • In the Survivor phase, individuals are struggling to find their place. Their needs focus primarily on place. That description resonates with me. During recovery and rehabilitation, mobility and opportunities for work. it was hard for me to see where I fit in the world I had known. • In the Citizen phase, survivors focus more on claiming their rightful place as contributing members After my accident, a landmine survivor visited me in the hospital. He of their communities. Their needs turn to external factors, such as equal protection under the law and offered tough advice: “You have a choice: stay a victim or be a survivor.” human rights. George Orwell said, “To survive you have to fight.” I learned it is a tough fight to find and claim your place. LSN presents a map to health, opportunity Our trauma recovery research indicates that LSN’s integrated program encompassing Health, Opportunity, and rights. But in heavily mined countries in the developing world, there and Rights is a dynamic way to meet survivors’ needs, and help them reclaim their lives. LSN’s work are major roadblocks. Worldwide, only 10% have access to healthcare and addresses the whole person on the journey from injury to recovery. rehabilitation, and many survivors face prejudice and the systemic rejection of HEALTH We are helping survivors, amputees and their families recover people with disabilities. physically and emotionally from trauma through peer support, links LSN is changing how landmine survivors see themselves, how they are to existing services, education, and community support, and fulfilling Health perceived, and how they are treated. basic needs such as food and shelter. Rights Please read the Annual Report. It shows our success. But there is more Survivors OPPORTUNITY Jobs and economic independence are intrinsic to work to do. recovery. But people with disabilities are often hired last, if at all. With gratitude and best wishes, LSN is working to change the way employers view people with disabilities and opening doors for survivors to find jobs. Opportunity RIGHTS Through local, regional, and international advocacy, LSN offers survivors and all people with disabilities training and tools needed to claim their human rights. LSN is working to persuade governments and communities to respect and promote the human rights of all people with disabilities. 2 Landmine Survivors Network Annual Report 2002 There’s work to do. health opportunity rights Losing my place hen a friend told me a nearby olive grove might be available for rent, Individual survivors are at I had to see the property for myself. While I was walking around the the center of LSN’s mission. grove, I stepped on a landmine. I laid in the grove suffering and near Worldwide, fewer than death for three hours before a driver spotted me. He took me to the 10% of survivors have access Wnearest hospital— almost an hour away. I was unconscious when we arrived. My to proper medical care. A foot couldn’t be saved. growing child needs a new After the surgery, one question haunted me: “What will I do from now on?” artificial limb every six to I didn’t have insurance, and the hospital was expensive. Worried that I twelve months. An adult could not provide for my family, I sent my wife and children to live with her family needs a new prosthesis in Syria. I felt useless. Then I met Ma’moun Abu Hdeib, an LSN-Jordan every three to five years. Outreach Worker. He was walking with such a steady step that I didn’t even notice he was The US Department of Victim wearing a prosthesis. We talked about his injury and mine. I was so eager to State estimates that fewer speak to somebody like me. than one in four landmine As Ma’moun visited me more and more, I began to feel less and less hopeless. amputees is fitted with a Ma’moun helped me wrap my leg, and then taught me how to do it myself. LSN proper prosthesis. gave me crutches, ending my confinement. Ma’moun explained that under Jordan’s disability law, I was entitled to insurance that pays for medicine, treatment and prostheses. Ma’moun helped me enroll in the national health insurance plan. Now I receive free medicine and follow-up care. I was ready for a prosthesis. My insurance covered the cost but none was LSN helps survivors, amputees and their families achieve physical and available at the government hospital. Ma’moun and LSN stepped in again. emotional recovery from trauma through peer support, links to existing LSN paid a private service provider to fit me and provide a prosthetic foot. With LSN’s help, I found a job. I feel useful again. Now I have an answer services, education, and community support, and fulfilling basic needs to the question, ‘What can I do from now on?’ I can work, support my family such as food and shelter. and live a good life. — Younes Srour Wardat, Jordan Above: LSN Outreach Worker Ma’moun Abu Hdeib helps Younes Srour Wardat wrap his residual limb, Jordan Landmine Survivors Network Annual Report 2002 5 health opportunity rights physicalA Time andto Heal emotional well-being ood healthcare is the starting point for trauma recovery. LSN Outreach Workers had an active caseload of 1,990 survivors last year — working to make sure each one has access to the care they need. When a survivor identifies a need that cannot be met by available services, LSN helps to Gmeet the need directly. Such needs include prostheses, doctor visits, medicine, Health wheelchairs, crutches, shelter and food. In addition, LSN Board and staff have Rights Survivors worked to increase funding for victim assistance programs through high-level meetings with government officials and by educating opinion-makers on the need. Opportunity PEER SUPPORT SURVIVOR NEEDS Last year, LSN Outreach Workers conducted 15,615 hospital and home visits Self Acceptance with survivors to assess needs, offer psychological and social support, and educate Medical Care families about the effects of limb loss.